Student at Harvard University and developer

From Oxford to Harvard

I’ve thought a lot about the best way to put this, and after writing a long version I’ve decided to go for a briefer post instead. So here it is: I’m transferring out of Oxford and into Harvard.

What does this mean?

It means that my work at Oxford over the past two years will contribute to my degree, but ultimately my degree will be from Harvard College, not Oxford University. I’ll be at Harvard for at least two years (depending on how much of my Oxford work receives transfer credit), so I should be graduating in 2017. I’ll probably be concentrating (majoring) in economics.

Why?

The short version: Ever since I chose Oxford over Harvard back in 2013, I’ve had a growing twinge of regret, which really solidified in the summer of 2014. As broad as PPE is, it still feels limiting; I’ve become really into programming, and I’m still interested in history, literature, and biology. A liberal arts education will let me continue to take classes in politics (in an American election year!) and economics as well as these other subjects. I also think I will be better suited to the Harvard education system; despite its reputation, the Oxford tutorial system hasn’t really worked well for my style of learning.

Thanks for everything, Oxford

Big love to my football gals, Code First: Girls peeps, fellow SCBC committee members, Codelaborate folks and everyone at Somerville. If you’d like to hear more on my reasons or how I went about the transfer application, please feel free to email me (alexcabrahams [at] gmail [dot] com). And thanks for reading!